The disclosure of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/517,419, filed Apr. 19, 2011, is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
Agricultural combine harvesting machines or harvesters typically discharge crop residue, or processed crop material, from a rear cavity of the harvester. Crop residue is typically generated by two sources. One source is the threshing and separating system, which produces a large volume of crop residue, typically including larger fragments of stalks, stems, cobs, and leaves, often referred to as straw or straw residue. The other source is the cleaning system, which produces a much lower volume of smaller elements of crop residue, such as pod and husk fragments, and particulates, commonly referred to as chaff or chaff residue. Both sources are typically propelled rearwardly through the rear cavity of the harvesting machine, and discharged through a rear opening in some manner.
Combine harvesters or machines typically utilize a rotary residue spreader in or adjacent to the rear opening to distribute the processed crop materials or residue over a harvested field. Alternatively, the spreader can be by-passed to not spread or distribute the crop material onto the field for a subsequent operation, such as baling. When the residue spreader is by-passed, the by-passing crop residue material, is often desirably placed on the field in a relatively narrow windrow behind the harvester in a process referred to as windrowing. Later, if the windrows are to be baled, often the baling apparatus, e.g., a tractor towing a baler, will have wheels spaced a certain distance side to side apart. As one desirable advantage, the windrows will be at least marginally smaller in width than this distance, so that when baling, the tractor wheels are not driven on the windrows. Difficulty achieving desired windrow width increases proportionally as the volume of residue to be windrowed increases, as a result for instance, of larger header widths and harvesting machine capacity, crop cut heights, crop density, etc. As another advantage, in some circumstances, it may be desired to windrow all of the crop residue for later pick up, e.g., baling, and in other circumstances it may be desired to have the ability to spread some of the residue, particularly the lighter, smaller chaff, and to bale the larger straw.
Rotary residue spreaders typically include counter rotating disks or impellers for receiving all or part of the processed crop material or residue from the rear cavity of a combine harvester and spreading the material in a generally even side to side manner behind the harvester. In some styles of spreaders, known generally as vertical spreaders, the impellers are oriented generally vertically or at a small acute angle relative to vertical, so as to rotate about a horizontal or near horizontal rotational axis. In other spreaders, known generally as horizontal spreaders, the disks are oriented generally horizontally, for rotation about upstanding or vertical rotational axes.
In connection with vertical spreaders, it is known to provide a manner of enabling easily choosing different operating modes or configurations for spreading all of the crop residue; windrowing all of the residue; or spreading the chaff and windrowing the straw. Reference in this regard, Wolters et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,719,627 issued Apr. 13, 2004, which discloses a vertical spreader and rear door arrangement wherein the door can be closed and the spreader positioned in a straw and chaff spreading configuration, and wherein the door can be opened to provide straw windrowing and chaff spreading. The spreader can alternatively be positioned in a rearmost raised clean out position to allow both the straw and chaff to fall through the rear opening of the machine for windrowing.
In contrast, with horizontal spreaders, the disks are relatively large and when not in use substantially block the rear opening of the harvesting machine, necessitating removal of the spreader assembly from the machine, or removal of the spreader disks from the spreader assembly, if it is desired not to spread crop residue. Some spreaders provide quick release mechanisms for this purpose. However, as a disadvantage, the spreader assembly, or the spreader disks are both quite large, and must be stored when not in use. As another disadvantage, with at least some horizontal spreaders it is not possible to spread the chaff and windrow the straw, which is a desired operation of many combine operators.
Therefore it would be desirable to have a crop residue distribution apparatus and system utilizing a horizontal spreader, that provides a straw and chaff spreading configuration, a straw windrowing and chaff spreading configuration, and a straw and chaff windrowing configuration that does not require removal of the spreader disks.
Thus, what is sought is an apparatus or system that overcomes at least one of the problems, shortcomings or disadvantages as set forth above.